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Law enforcement officers in areas primarily run by Democrats continue to flock to red states for job security, better pay and bosses who will back them up, according to one police leader.
Joe Gamaldi is the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). He is an active lieutenant with the Houston Police Department, and he said police in blue cities are tired of facing hostility from local leaders.
“What we’ve seen is really a mass exodus of police officers leaving far-left cities for basically greener pastures,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Because, ultimately, people want to feel appreciated for what they do. And when you have a boss — in this case, mayors or city councils, who regularly call you a piece of crap to the public — why would anyone stay?
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Indiana State Police protect the governor’s residence as protesters marched from Monument Circle to the governor’s home June 1, 2020. (Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar via Imagn Content Services, LLC)
Florida is one example of a Republican-led state that has benefited from the mass departures.
According to a 2024 statement from former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the state welcomed 5,000 law enforcement recruits between 2022 and last year, and 1,200 of them came from out of state.
“Florida is the most pro-law enforcement state in the nation because we back our blue,” Moody said at the time. “We’ve been spreading the word about all the great incentives to join our ranks, and individuals like the new Sarasota recruits have answered the call, leaving behind places where their service was not as appreciated as it is here.”
She said she was “as inspired as ever to continue doing all we can to show our support to those who bravely protect and serve” after seeing the influx of police officers into the state.
People walk in Washington, D.C., after “Defund The Police” was painted on the street near the White House June 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Gamaldi said officers are also moving to cities that may lean blue but are in red states and still have the support of elected leadership and the community, adding officers are “voting with their feet.”
“We’re also seeing it [in] Texas in Houston, which is a city that leans a little blue, but they have been supportive of police officers,” he said. “The mayor there has given a massive raise to police officers. You’re seeing officers go there. You’re seeing officers go to Dallas. So, you’re seeing all these communities, and there’s one common thread. It’s ‘We support police officers.'”
Joe Gamaldi tells Fox News Digital experienced police officers are moving away from blue cities en masse. (Fox News Digital)
Gamaldi emphasized that the trend began after the 2020 defund the police movement and said, in many cities, law enforcement officers are afraid to do their jobs in “critical incident” situations, even when they do them by the book.
“I think you can look no further than Seattle, Portland, Chicago [and] New York,” he said. “All of these cities have basically told their police officers, ‘We don’t support you. We’re not gonna be there for you when you need us. We’re gonna try to defund you when given the opportunity.’
A demonstrator holds a sign that says “Defund the police” during a protest Sept. 6, 2020, over the death of a Black man, Daniel Prude, after police put a spit hood over his head during an arrest in Rochester, N.Y.. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
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“I mean, my goodness, right now, one of the mayoral candidates for New York has actively said he wants to defund and dismantle the police department,” Gamaldi said, referring to socialist Zohran Mamdani, who has been open with his anti-police rhetoric.
Blue cities, Gamaldi said, are worse off for driving out their police forces.
Police in riot gear surround the Arizona Capitol after protesters reached the front of the Arizona Senate building in reaction to the Supreme Court decision to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision June 24, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
“Look at the mass exodus of experience in solving cases and experience of just mentoring the next generation of police officers,” he said. “I mean, the damage that was done in 2020 with the defund the police movement, rhat’s going to reverberate for decades. You don’t just recover from something like that when you have all of that experience walking out the door.”
He also pointed to better pay and other financial perks, like cities covering moving expenses, as reasons law enforcement officers are moving away from far-left areas.
Blue cities are worse off for not supporting their police officers, Gamaldi said. (Getty Images)
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Ultimately, he posed a question to those who patrol the streets where they are unappreciated, saying, “Why not leave?”
“To anyone watching this right now,” Gamaldi said, “if your boss was constantly telling you [that] you’re doing a horrible job, and, in addition, if you were following the exact policies, training and the law of your job, and yet they are still demonizing you, still throwing you under the bus, still trying to indict you, why the hell would you stay?”